Apart from the (almost incidental) identification of the beings/persons who are the subject of his description, John uses this paragraph to move into another arena: A comparison with other spiritual options. In the second paragraph (life and light) he has already suggested 'the light' is opposed by the darkness (though not overcome by it). Now he takes us further.
We've seen already that this paragraph is about explaining the uniqueness of Jesus; "full of grace-and-truth" is a description of what this uniqueness means, and it must be one of the most evocative phrases there is. It is not in power (whether supernatural, or the ability to draw crowds, or the winning of debate) that John places Jesus' glory, his uniqueness. It is in this combination of grace and truth.
The key phrase in this paragraph (John1:14-17) is "grace and truth". It is rather fascinating that one of these two words, truth, is used repeatedly in the main text of John's story, while the other, grace, is never used again! Just to make up for this, John uses it extra in this bit!
John talks of Jesus as full of grace and truth, and it is out of this fullness that we receive. It is a if Jesus has so much that he overflows, and what overflows to us is grace. Grace is all about someone who gives to the undeserving, who is a companion to the unworthy, who is kind no matter what. John tells us that he and Jesus' other followers had experienced something extraordinary: Jewish people had already received from God and the Bible is clear that this was undeserved, what they already had as God's people was grace. But then Jesus came, and they found themselves receiving more grace, richer grace, more gracious grace, if such a thing is possible.
He explains. The law was given through Moses. The law was very precious; through it people could discover who God is and how he means them to live. This was wonderful. However, more was needed. We needed to see the truth, we needed to touch grace. Moses was involved in the giving of the law, but in Jesus truth and grace came. This is an intensely personal happening, Jesus brought something to us in himself. Jesus is different not only like light is different from darkness, but as the real thing (Jesus=grace&truth) is different from a description (the law). He is different from Moses in the same way as meeting a person is different from hearing about them.
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Saturday, 10 September 2011
unique glory
John uses this paragraph to gives us more words, both images and concepts, which describe the person he is telling us about. Just like the previous ones, most of these words, and all of the ideas behind the words, will echo through the narrative to come.
The key words here are "full of grace and truth" - but before he comes to this phrase, John takes trouble to point out yet again that this person is unique; he is the one and only who came from the Father. This is an interesting phrase, and we struggle a bit in English because there is no way of translating it which is a elegant, as poetically pointed, as the Greek which is a single word!
I am generally dead against amateurs like you and me messing with translation because after all, if you get 70 of the world's most expert Greek, Hebrew and English specialists together (like they did to create the NIV) how am I likely to clarify things? However what I am doing here is IN NO WAY suggesting an alternative translation, but merely explaining for interested parties why it might sound less elegant than expected, and why some translations use that odd device of adding in the word [Son] - the square brackets mean that it is a word added for clarity, which the translators believe is 'understood' in the original. So, this is just my way of teasing out what John is telling me!
This word is a composite one: The first part is mono, which is totally familiar to us because we use it in much the same way in English, tells us this thing is the only one, or one-of-a-kind. It is fairly simply translated as "only" or "one and only". The second part is the tricky bit it is genos (or at least genous, which merely another part of speech for the same word, like the differerence between love and loved - same meaning but changed form to fit into a different part of a sentence) which has to do with someone being descended from another person, or perhaps a thing which is the same as another and emerges from it. So an old translation uses the word "begotten" of the Father, which we don't use any more. Our NIV 2011 says "Son who came" from the Father. But some people struggle with the idea of Jesus as God's Son because it sounds too biological, too earthy. Now later John will use the normal Greek word for 'son' when he will call Jesus the 'Son of God' and invte us to believe that, but he isn't actually doing that yet. Here he is being more subtle, more complex, more abstract.
I think here John is trying to portray that Jesus is someone whose relationship with God can't be described in the normal ways. We've already see this in the first paragraph with the multiple descriptions of the Word with respect to God. Now he is finding another way of saying that Jesus is 'the same as' God but 'distinct from' God also. For good measure, in case another is tempted to say, "Oh, well, of course we all come from God, after all he made us," or words to that effect, John puts in the prefix mono. The only one like this.
It is this glory that John and his companions saw as they lived with Jesus. This is the glory he is going to tell us more about. It is a glory which is inherent in the nature of this unique person. As we will see, this glory can be described by the phrase: full of grace and truth.
The key words here are "full of grace and truth" - but before he comes to this phrase, John takes trouble to point out yet again that this person is unique; he is the one and only who came from the Father. This is an interesting phrase, and we struggle a bit in English because there is no way of translating it which is a elegant, as poetically pointed, as the Greek which is a single word!
I am generally dead against amateurs like you and me messing with translation because after all, if you get 70 of the world's most expert Greek, Hebrew and English specialists together (like they did to create the NIV) how am I likely to clarify things? However what I am doing here is IN NO WAY suggesting an alternative translation, but merely explaining for interested parties why it might sound less elegant than expected, and why some translations use that odd device of adding in the word [Son] - the square brackets mean that it is a word added for clarity, which the translators believe is 'understood' in the original. So, this is just my way of teasing out what John is telling me!
This word is a composite one: The first part is mono, which is totally familiar to us because we use it in much the same way in English, tells us this thing is the only one, or one-of-a-kind. It is fairly simply translated as "only" or "one and only". The second part is the tricky bit it is genos (or at least genous, which merely another part of speech for the same word, like the differerence between love and loved - same meaning but changed form to fit into a different part of a sentence) which has to do with someone being descended from another person, or perhaps a thing which is the same as another and emerges from it. So an old translation uses the word "begotten" of the Father, which we don't use any more. Our NIV 2011 says "Son who came" from the Father. But some people struggle with the idea of Jesus as God's Son because it sounds too biological, too earthy. Now later John will use the normal Greek word for 'son' when he will call Jesus the 'Son of God' and invte us to believe that, but he isn't actually doing that yet. Here he is being more subtle, more complex, more abstract.
I think here John is trying to portray that Jesus is someone whose relationship with God can't be described in the normal ways. We've already see this in the first paragraph with the multiple descriptions of the Word with respect to God. Now he is finding another way of saying that Jesus is 'the same as' God but 'distinct from' God also. For good measure, in case another is tempted to say, "Oh, well, of course we all come from God, after all he made us," or words to that effect, John puts in the prefix mono. The only one like this.
It is this glory that John and his companions saw as they lived with Jesus. This is the glory he is going to tell us more about. It is a glory which is inherent in the nature of this unique person. As we will see, this glory can be described by the phrase: full of grace and truth.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
cosmic prologue
Before he even gets to the introduction, John gives us a startling glance at the cosmic origins and implications of the narrative which we are about to read.
John 1:1-18
He starts with pre-space and non-time; he uses multidimensional images; he moves through the enitire world of being human; and he imagines seeing God. But in this telescopic whirlwind of transcendence, John places two small ellipses (like this, in brackets, only Greek doesn't have brackets) which prepare us as readers for the sudden entry into tangible history which will happen in the next sentence.
It really is a glance - less than half a page when the rest of his account is 25 pages. At the end of his account, there is a corresponding epilogue after the conclusion. It is even more brief, at only one sentence!
It is almost as if John wants us to be ready to assess his narrative in the cosmic context, but he wants Jesus' life to speak for him. So he primes us, but then never comes back to force the issue.
1:1-3 The Word
1:4-9 The Light (ellipsis 1:6-8 John the Witness)
1:10-13 Receiving
1:14-17 Grace and Truth (ellipsis 1:15 The Witness of John)
1:18 Revealing God
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